Writing – tptmike.com

The Outline: A Writer’s Most Essential Tool

on December 11, 2025Published by Mike7 min read

When you begin writing a novel, one of the most powerful tools you can give yourself is a well-structured outline. It is more than a planning document—it becomes the blueprint that supports your characters, your world, and your narrative direction. A solid outline gives you clarity when the story expands, confidence when you revise, and stability when the writing gets difficult. Start With the Core Elements: Character, Plot, and Setting Before outlining, it helps to establish three foundational components: who your characters are, what they will experience, and where the story takes place. These elements form the scaffolding that everything…

Character Introduction: James Matheson

on December 7, 2025Published by Mike5 min read

“The man who carried too much, too quietly.” Some characters enter a story with the force of a marching army. James Matheson enters like a shadow crossing a doorway — calm, controlled, and carrying more weight than anyone realizes until the moment it crushes him. If Richard is the heart of The Burden of Honor, and Charlie is its quiet conscience, then James is the burden itself — the living embodiment of what duty demands, what sacrifice costs, and what happens when a man stands too long between truth and power. James represents the generation that came before: the one…

Character Introduction: Charlie Matheson

on December 7, 2025Published by Mike5 min read

“The storm beneath the still water.” Every epic needs more than one center of gravity.If Richard is the beating heart of The Burden of Honor, then Charlie is the quiet pulse beneath it — steady, deliberate, and far more essential than he lets anyone believe. Charlie doesn’t announce himself.He doesn’t posture or command a room with noise.Instead, he shapes the world around him by existing inside it with a rare, grounded clarity. In a story full of soldiers, rulers, spies, and fractured nations, Charlie stands apart as the one who sees people — who they are, what they fear, and…

Character Introduction: Richard Matheson

on December 5, 2025Published by Mike4 min read

“The heart of The Burden series.” Every story needs an anchor, someone who carries us into the world before we even realize it’s becoming our world too. For The Burden of Honor, that anchor is Richard Matheson. Richard begins as many of us do: young, hopeful, convinced that with enough effort and integrity he can shape the world into something better. But the world he inherits is war-torn, politically fractured, and haunted by the decisions of the generation before him. In many ways, Richard’s journey becomes a collision between who he wants to be and what the world demands he…

The Origin of The Burden of Honor

on December 4, 2025Published by Mike3 min read

How a college assignment became a 10-year journey to publication. Every story begins somewhere — sometimes in a moment of inspiration, sometimes in a quiet spark you don’t recognize as important until much later. For The Burden of Honor, that spark came from an elective college course on high fantasy analysis. One of our assignments required creating a short story set in an original world. At the time, I had no idea that simple assignment would eventually grow into the foundation of an entire series. Today, TBH bears almost no resemblance to that early work… but the encouragement from my…